From Russia with Love
by Sasake
Summary: The thing about the Mafiya is that they don't let you win. Artemis had rescued one loved one, so another had to be taken to even the score, and Holly finds herself being roped into rescue the person who took everything from her. Assume A/O
1. Chapter 1

Eugeny Petrov Krasna idly played with the Cossack hat, given him by his father. The garment that he now wore to keep the biting Russian winds at bay had come with some advice, advice that was invaluable in Eugeny's line of work. Always know who your enemies are, and never forget why they are your enemies. Never forget them. An organised crime syndicate could not afford to be taken likely. If anyone, anyone at all, thought they could escape from their influence, it would be disastrous. So never forget who needs to be taught a lesson. Revenge your insults. No-one gets away with winning.

A phone rang from the Russian's fur-lined greatcoat. Eugeny drew out a sleek Blackberry, the latest model naturally. He scowled as he looked at the screen, then thumbed the touch sensitive screen with a gloved hand.

"Da?"

"I just called to say..." the voice was anything but casual, "that mother expects to see you tonight. She's cooking Pirozhki."

"Tell her no eggs. I don't like eggs."

"Britva?"

"Of course you fool! Are you sure this line is secure?"

"Yes. I'm not completely incapable."

"Apparently. I've yet to see evidence. Perhaps I should have thrown you into the ice back then as well."

Kamal winced. He had managed to persuade Britva that Vassikin had been responsible for the Fowl hostage event, by throwing Artemis Senior overboard. Britva had responded by giving the Murmansker the same treatment. Revenge your insults.

"The team has been assembled. Artemis Fowl Junior is leaving tomorrow for a debate at the Oxford Union, taking his... bodyguard with him. At 1300 hours the two fire teams will clear the house, whilst the hackers disable Fowl's security system. I will perform the snatch myself, along with six men I hand-picked, all ex-KGB, and all men who have seen action. But we expect little to no resistance. Fowl's security is laughable."

Britva was not impressed. "Don't be so confident. Fowl is a genius, a brilliant inventor and a madman. His staff is low yes. But there may be other problems involved."

Kamal bit back a retort. Britva had hung up anyway. If Kamal didn't succeed it didn't matter to him. He would send another team. And Kamal would die. No more chances.

The centaur, Foaly, scowled as he powered up the monitor. An animated figure danced across the screen that vaguely resembled him. As he watched, the figure trotted along eating a comically oversized carrot with gusto, before walking into a tree. Foaly sighed. The Figure then walked over a pile of fallen leaves which gave way, pitching his avatar into a pit of spikes, resulting in a disturbingly violent animated death. He had been receiving these for a month or so now, and he knew exactly where they came from. And it frustrated him all the more that he couldn't do anything about it. He gritted his teeth before making a gesture at thin air. A person appeared on the screen in front of him, its head bent over a massive pile of paperwork, face held in one hand.

The figure looked up. "What is it Foaly? I'm a busy fairy you know."

"Oh. Well that's fine. I'm just a bit lonesome down here in my booth, wondered if you might fancy a break?"

"Foaly, I haven't got time for this. If you want something then tell me quickly, if not stop distracting me."

"Oh no, just a chat. I understand if you haven't got the time to talk to an old friend."

Holly sighed, rubbing her temples with her thumb and forefinger. As if she didn't have enough responsibilities without having to babysit a petulant centaur. "Look Foaly, its not that, I genuinely have to get these arrest reports signed before..." Her voice trailed off.

Foaly had lifted up a small china bowl, full of passion fruit. He plucked one of the small yellow fruit and raised it before the camera temptingly. "Sure you don't have the time? I'll probably ask a couple of techies in if you can't come. I mean, I can't eat all of these on my own." It was a pathetic ruse. There were barely any of the fruit in the bowl, and they were a rare delicacy for the subterranean Fairies.

"How did you-" Holly recovered her composure. "I suppose I have a few minutes. I'll be down in a second." Foaly grinned. It was so easy to get your way. You just had to know which buttons to push.

Opal Koboi grinned as she composed her latest animation to send to Foaly. Artemis would probably tell her that it was a sigh of her own insecurity that she kept sending them to her old enemy, but to be honest she just liked the idea that somewhere, far under the ground in her own home, she could still be a very annoying person.

Apart from this daily ritual, Opal Koboi had almost completely let go of her old life. She hadn't enjoyed it anyway. Although her ears were still pointed, she no longer truly represented her old self. Her body had grown, not much, but she was now comfortably over four foot, short but not abnormal for humans. Which was good, as she was now married to a human, and lived with humans daily. She had only kept her ears because Artemis had asked her to. A weird fetish, she had commented, but she kept them anyway. She had worn a hat for a while, but eventually she just told everyone she had taken plastic surgery, and the world had accepted this as one of the eccentricities of the hugely wealthy. In fact many Hollywood stars had now asked their surgeons for the same operation, and it had become something of a fashion.

For the eyes of the world were now truly on the Fowls. That is Opal and Artemis Fowl, the brilliant businessman and innovative inventor that had created an empire that had gone from strength to strength in the four short years in which they were married. Artemis Fowl was the richest 22-year old on the planet, and Fowl Industries was the largest growing technology company in terms of net value. Opal's inventions had been relatively simple to her, but they came as revolutions for the Humans for whom she was now inventing. The solar-powered car had been her first creation, the first realistic application of the science to personal transport. Artemis had wanted to create a family car, but Opal had persuaded him that to impress the world they should make something a little more impressive. And so the £500,000 Fowl Prometheus had been created, a stunningly beautiful two seater designed by Artemis and engineered by Opal. Zero to 62 in 2.2 seconds, zero to 100 in 4 and a top speed of 300mph made it the fastest supercar in the world, outstripping the Petrol rivals with ease. Many other innovations had followed, and cars were only one wing of the Fowl empire. And of course, Opal's greatest inventions were kept to herself.

All this of course was highly infuriating to the Fairies, and particularly Opal's enemies below ground. Her newly found environmentalist aspirations had led to a lowering in the world's carbon footprint by a massive 10, and many of her inventions, such as the solar ambulance, also served to help humanity, and many liberal fairies were calling for her name to be struck off the Public Enemy list. They argued that the damage she had caused had long ago been overtaken by the good she was now doing. Opal had saved many more lives by this point than she had ever taken. But the council remembered the Bwa'kell uprising, the Zito probe and the endangered animal testing. She was still hated by the majority of fairies, and it infuriated them that she lived above ground in happiness and prosperity, far beyond the reach of the law. Opal didn't care much either way.

Artemis Fowl the second wandered into her laboratory, idly eyeing her latest projects and rejects scattered with apparently no order around the room. He had long since given up on trying to get her to conform to a more organised system. She seemed to work fine in the chaos that was so anathema to Artemis's method of working. He stood behind her chair and placed his hands on her shoulders, bending down and kissing her cheek. She moved slightly towards him, leaning on his midriff.

"Good morning."

"Good morning to you too."

"Are you really still sending those silly things?"

"Yes."

Their voices were soft and gentle, almost whispers. He stood behind her for a few more seconds, then spoke again in his businessman's voice. "How is he this morning?"

"He's absolutely fine. All the usual tests are showing no abnormalities. He'll be finished in a minute, why don't you go in?" She seemed annoyed at his question, as if it were unnecessary for Artemis to voice any worries, but she spoke gently enough.

"I'll do that." Opal noticed his posture had changed, had become less relaxed, and his manner was serious and almost anxious. She sighed inwardly, but made no comment. She felt it wasn't her place to offer her opinion on the matter.

Artemis stepped briskly over to the opposite wall and pressed a fingerprint-recognition button. A door slid soundlessly open and he stepped inside. Within the chamber was a mass of piping and wiring, feeding into a central glass cylinder. The whirring and clunking of machinery created strange sounds, and the hiss of released steam made him jump momentarily. He listened for a minute to the sounds, waiting for the tests to finish. After a short while the machinery wound down, and the front panel of the glass cylinder slid down to reveal a single figure inside.

"Good morning" said Artemis in a caring tone, "Old Friend."


	2. Chapter 2

Holly barged her way into the Tech booth, sighing loudly as she saw Foaly quickly turn off the monitor.

"Foaly, there's no point trying to hide it. You're playing on that damned game again aren't you?" Foaly had recently taken to playing Mud-man online video games, for Frond knew what reason. He turned the screen on again quickly only to see his character trampled to death by a computer generated centaur. A message came up unnecessarily informing him of his characters death.

"How ironic" she commented impassionately. "I know what this is about by the way. And I don't know what you expect me to do about it." Her voice sounded tired and stressed. Foaly knew she had been overworked recently. With no immediate threat to the Fairy civilisation the LEP's funding, which had shot up enormously after the Artemis Fowl affair and the B'wa Kell uprising, had started to dwindle. Cut-backs were being made and Holly had to shoulder the burden.

He spoke gently to her, putting aside his own grievances. "How did your meeting go this morning?"

"Not well. After a long argument they asked me to give them one good reason that the LEP needed to be kept at full combat strength, in light of the current situation."

"And?"

"Can you think of one?"

Foaly snorted. "I don't know. Is Fowl locked up in a padded cell with his psychotic spouse yet?"

Holly sighed. "We've been through this Foaly. Fowl is no longer considered a threat to the people, and Koboi has made no aggressive action for the last 8 years. The council just doesn't see why we should continue to defend ourselves from people who clearly have no desire to fight. Fowl just wants to be left alone to live his life"

He stared at her. "I'm sure Koboi wants to live her life as well. But so far her life has consisted of being a homicidal megalomaniac!"

"Foaly you know I agree with you, but there's nothing we can do about it. Fowl is untouchable, and so long as she's under his care then she is too."

"Yeah right. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it though."

"Lets not talk about it. I'm sure she'd like it if she knew she could still anger us."

Opal Koboi laughed as she watched the centaur animation trample Foaly's character, imagining his face contorted in frustration miles beneath the ground. Silly Pony. Why would you play a game developed by Mud-men for children if you were supposed to be a genius?

She turned her attention back to the job in hand. The tests had been finished and she perused the results carefully. This was the most complex operation she had ever performed, and it mattered more considering the implications of any mistake. She moved over to the microphone:

"Artemis, are you in there?"

His voice was calm, but his reply was terse. "Yes. He's fine." There was a short pause. "Well done."

_I told you so_. The thought came to her head but she didn't voice it. He was right to worry she supposed, although she tended to act first and worry later. Which probably wasn't the right approach in this situation.

A few years ago, Butler had started to age rapidly. Neither Artemis nor Opal could understand what was happening, and at first they hadn't noticed at all, because his appearance stayed the same. Butler had noticed it first, commenting often how tired he felt, and Artemis had been alarmed immediately. After running some basic scans on his body Opal had determined that Butler's cells were in an advanced state of decay, dying much faster than they should, faster even than they had thought they would after the healing. Something had needed to be done, and Opal had the answer. For months she had worried about it, but in the end she thought Artemis would rather Butler lived than died. As she had predicted though, he hadn't liked it:

"No."

"Excuse me?

"No! I won't let you do it. It's too dangerous. Not even that, it's immoral. What you're proposing will take his humanity away. I forbid it."

_You don't forbid me to do anything! _Had been her immediate reaction. Instead she had spoken to him soothingly "It's that or a premature death Artemis. And Butler hates this. He wants to be useful. He wants to do the job you pay him for. If I asked him he would do this. I know he would want this."

"And have you asked him?"

"No, but I will. I want you to agree Artemis. I want you to recognise that this is the right thing to do. But if you don't I'll do it anyway. You know he'll agree, Artemis."

In his defence he didn't explode. "I need some time to think about this. I don't think this is a good idea, Opal. But I trust you. Please don't speak to Butler until I've thought about this."

Of course he had agreed in the end. Butler had agreed too, without a moment's hesitation once he had understood. So she had started on the most complex invention she had ever created.

Artemis stepped out of the door, and immediately walked over and kissed her. She smiled at his sudden expression of emotion. Butler stepped out immediately after Artemis, looking as he had done for decades, young, fit, efficient and ruthless.

"How is it Butler?" Opal asked.

"I can't even feel it any more. It's perfect."

"Good. That means it's been accepted by your nervous system. I'll keep the buffers in for another month, just in case, but effectively this is your body now."

Butler smiled briefly. "Good. Now I can do my job again."

This was directed at Artemis, who frowned. "I don't think... not quite yet Butler. Your position is still not certain. I won't risk you until certainty is assured."

"With respect Artemis, I'm the bodyguard, I take the risks with my life. You are at risk every day without me by your side. Therefore I have to prevent that risk, even at the risk of my own life."

"But -"

"Artemis, you won't keep me inside for a minute longer. Where are you going today? Oxford? I might as well come with you just to test my systems. There won't be any threat there anyway, so I needn't exert myself."

This he could allow. "Very well Butler, when you put it like that."

He turned to his wife. "Are you sure you don't want to come dear? Oxford is very beautiful, although I really do despise some of the older architecture, quite unsubtle. And I imagine you will find the Union 'debate' quite as boring as I will. And the traffic is abysmal." Having argued himself out of his own question, Artemis frowned.

She smiled at him. "I'm quite sure. I don't think I would enjoy explaining how the solar cells in the jet work for another fifty times. They never get it anyway. I don't know how you can condescend to talk to these people."

"Some of them are quite intelligent actually. Well a few anyway. If you're sure?" She nodded absent-mindedly, already thinking about something else. "Well, goodbye then"

Artemis had finished his speech and was attempting to leave before he could be arrested and questioned by various professors, doctors and cocky undergraduates. Most only wanted to know about Opal's inventions anyway, and it was only her elusiveness which meant they had to resort to pestering him. He had taken questions after the talk anyway, and it wasn't as if he didn't have anything else to do. So, sticking closely behind Butler, he slipped out as quickly as possible.

Once he was safely inside his luxurious Fowl Saturn, Artemis sighed and settled into the leather. It had been a long day. Butler eased down the pedal, and the car slid away, getting about twenty yards before having to stop for traffic. Artemis sighed again. Correction: it was going to be a long day.

Back at the lab, Opal was expecting a visit from Giovanni Zito, the environmentalist. After apologising profusely for mesmerising him into thinking he was her daughter and forcing him to waste a vast proportion of his resources on the subterranean probe, he had forgiven her utterly and, after a good laugh about the whole situation, Opal and Zito had struck up a wonderful friendship. Well maybe it wasn't that simple. In truth, Artemis had insisted that the Sicilian environmentalist meet his wife, and he had insisted to her that she meet him. The result was predictably unbearable, but after a long period, and after many apologies from her and considerable investment in his company, the two had managed to piece together an accord. In truth it was his respect for Opal as a scientist that had really made the difference, and she was surprised to find that she respected him too. Zito brought a degree of rationality to her madcap schemes, always seeing the practical benefits or demerits of her inventions, and especially the limit of her budget, which, considering she had lost her government funding and gained many rivals in the human world, was no mean thing. The point is that she had disabled the sixteen heat sensitive laser cannons in the grounds, powered off the electromagnetic field and locked up the robo-hounds in order to allow him to land his helicopter in safety. Although that last bit about the robo-hounds was a lie. Artemis had prevented their production on the grounds that they kept falling in the lake and electrocuting the swans.

It also meant that when a large black helicopter landed on the lawn, Opal did not retreat to the basement and lock herself in the lab before activating the DNA cannons, but ran out to meet the aircraft alone. Of course Kamal did not know that Zito was visiting, and had he not had this fluke of luck, he would likely have ended up in a British prison, or, if he had been unlucky enough to escape, at the bottom of the Moskva River. As it was he was able to run quickly across the lawn, scoop up the tiny (though extremely irate) woman and bundle her into the 'copter. The whole operation had taken less than 15 minutes, and Kamal breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe for a little longer, at least until he got to the Arctic circle, when he could resume his past hobby of steadily absorbing extremely unhealthy doses of radiation.

He snorted. "I should have listened to my mother and stayed out of the gangs." Yeah, right.


	3. Chapter 3

Artemis was on the road to the airport when he received the call, and he was mildly pleased when he pulled out his phone and saw that the caller was his old friend Giovanni Zito. Artemis supposed that the environmentalist had persuaded his wife to persuade _him_ to give the pair of them vast sums of money in order that they might develop some ridiculous and half formed idea for something that would doubtless be forgotten the next week. Still the chance to talk to his wife spread a warm feeling through his chest, and a few years ago he might have worried that anyone could have this much of an effect on him. But Opal still made his heart jump every time he thought of her, like a teenage crush, but at the same time he was comfortable, settled and supremely content, and altogether he rather liked this feeling.

"Hello Giovanni." He spoke cheerfully into the tiny handset, "glad you could take time out of your scheming to break the monotony of my day. I'm surprised you have time to -"

Zito cut him short, his voice panicked and out of breath; "Artemis! Your wife, is she with you?"

A deep, dark feeling cut through Artemis. "No, she isn't. She's not at the house?"

"I just arrived but she's nowhere to be found. Even the lab has been left open!"

Artemis couldn't think straight. He felt like he was sinking; his vision started to darken at the edges and a sick feeling entered his mouth. He realised, with some shock, that he was on the verge of fainting, and shook himself out of it.

"Artemis! I'll wait at the house for you. How soon can you get back to Ireland?"

"Three hours." This was Butler, chipping in. Obviously he could hear all of the conversation, and if Artemis hadn't been so distracted he might have noticed the strangeness of this.

"Three hours... thank-you Giovanni, but it would be best if you got yourself back home. There's no sense in you getting involved in this situation."

Opal Koboi had been kidnapped, and she was not amused. After kicking and screaming for a good five minutes without any sign of stopping, Kamal had ordered that her restraints be increased to more than just a pair of handcuffs. Boris, the largest man, had eagerly offered to do the job, and as the huge Russian sauntered towards her corner with a sadistic and malevolent smile on his fat face, Opal reflected that she had probably made a mistake in kicking him in the genitalia quite so hard. The look in his eyes told her the exact kind of bastard she was dealing with; one who delights in dealing pain and suffering, from having power over others and who would look for any excuse to use excessive force. He had probably joined the mafiya simply to find a profession where his 'interests' could be satisfied, even appreciated.

He drew a large length of rope from somewhere within his greatcoat, and she just had time to reflect that he probably carried it around everywhere before he had grabbed her kicking legs in one hand and flipped her onto her stomach. She was completely unable to resist him, effectively child-sized and with her hands cuffed behind her back, and her choice was to submit or give him an excuse to hurt her. As it was, her large, fragile Pixie head smacked the side of the helicopter and she let out a gasp of pain. The Russian started to quickly bind her legs together, and she could tell straight away he was an expert. He drew the ropes around her calves and thighs, curling the rope around the knees, and continuing in an intricate set of knots that left her unable to move her lower body whatsoever. With the cuffs holding her hand behind her back she was pretty much helpless, but predictably he started to wind another rope around her arms and upper body, before another Russian, young and clean-shaven, threw a pinned grenade at the side of his head, which bounced off and seemed to draw him out of a stupor. Opal shuddered as he withdrew, and was unable to prevent a tear from escaping her huge eyes.

"Boris! You look like a bear slobbering over a child, what the hell is wrong with you? Seriously, you make me sick just to look at you. Leave the girl alone and calm the fuck down!"

"Not yet, Sergei," grinned the huge face in front of her. "She can still talk and annoy us..."

With that he drew a filthy rag from another pocket and grabbed her delicate jaw, attempting to force the disgusting item into her mouth. She clamped her jaw shut, and he immediately slapped her in the face, hard. He didn't look annoyed, but she saw his eyes glitter, daring her, willing her to give him a reason. She trembled with fear and, feeling sick to her core, allowed him to force her mouth open. He shoved the rag in and she retched, but before she could spit it out he forced her jaw shut with his thumb and sealed it with a piece of duct tape. He wrapped more and more of the grey tape around her mouth till all that could be seen were her eyes, gazing at him with fear, and he smiled one last time, patted her gently on the cheek and moved back to his seat further up the 'copter. Opal sank down, utterly defeated. Strong as she might be, she had never been treated this badly in her life, and it was too much for her. She was surrounded by enemies, utterly helpless with almost no chance of escape, and the chance that she would be unharmed was almost zero.

Artemis had gone almost completely out of control the second he had got back to Fowl Manor. Butler had been forced to physically restrain him for a few seconds by grabbing his wrist before Artemis, taking two long shuddering breaths, managed to calm himself. Picking up the ransom note, Artemis glanced over it quickly and crumpled it with a snarl. It didn't matter what they wanted. If he thought that Opal would be returned unharmed he would pay any ransom but, as he already knew, it was more likely that they would both die, and if he let them have access to his money they would have no reason to keep either of them alive.

Butler watched Artemis, slightly stunned by the rage contorting his features, clouding his judgement. He wanted to tell Artemis to calm down, to think, but how could he do that? He had never seen Artemis like this, and therefore had no idea how he would react. Artemis was usually so in control of his emotions, so whatever was happening to him now must be colossal, and it was far beyond anything Butler could do to stop it.

Suddenly the young man stopped. It was as if every cell in his body had simultaneously frozen in place, before relaxing again. The change in Artemis was dramatic; the mad look in his eyes had been replaced by another and this time it was one that Butler did recognise, one that he did not like. It was something he had hoped never to see again in Artemis. A cold, ruthless expression, impassioned yet utterly determined, and completely merciless. He then sank down to the ground where he stood, taking the meditative position and closed his eyes. Without speaking Butler stayed exactly where he was, knowing that to talk now would only break Artemis's train of thought. Artemis had barely been in meditation for two minutes when he opened his eyes. The same look was still there.

"Butler. Let's go down to the lab. There are some... people I need to call."

Butler hesitated. He could guess which 'people' Artemis was going to ask for help, and he could also guess what their answer would be. But it was no use interrupting Artemis. Doubtless he had already thought of the best course of action to take, and Butler knew that he would only understand it once it had already happened. If ever.

Down in the lab Artemis went to his wife's laptop and punched in her password. Quickly navigating through the unique operating system he opened up a direct link to Haven. First he needed to break into Police Plaza, and luckily Opal had already created a program that emulated her own hacking skills, and as she had already broken into Police Plaza, the program quickly chewed through the security systems. Of course the real difficulty would be getting into Foaly's Tech booth, but again, the program had done this before, and he was quickly able to gain access. Only once he was in did Artemis stop to think. What would be the best way to do this? Ideally he should have Holly and Foaly there, so that if one didn't agree to his request then the other might persuade them. Of course it was highly unlikely that either would even want to speak to him at all, but no matter. He had several plans, and he knew that Fairies were particularly easy to blackmail; far more moral than most humans in places of authority, more trusting and more naive. His wife had been the perfect example of Fairy 'innocence'; if Opal had tried to take over the human world without her technological wonders she would have been utterly destroyed in ten minutes. Fairies lacked that selfishness, that cruelty, and the ability to suppress their moral qualms that came so easily to humans. Quickly he did a check of all personnel in the building and found, to his convenience, that Holly was in Foaly's booth right at that moment. He quickly took control of the cameras and switched on the sound.

"...and face it Holly, he completely betrayed you!" Despite his anxiety Artemis paused, feeling a pang of guilt. They must be talking about him. Did they really still care about him after all these years?

He watched curiously as Holly retorted: "He betrayed the People, Foaly. He let down all of his friends."

"Don't give me that. You know I know you better. Fowl took your friendship and threw it away when he'd had enough. You said yourself you thought you were his only real friend. And more..."

"Shut up." Holly snapped at him, then relented almost immediately. "I'm sorry Foaly. Frond knows it's not your fault. You're right of course... Art- Fowl was one of my best friends. I even thought I could..." She broke off, swallowed loudly and continued, "I even thought I might have... I mean... I lo-"

This had gone too far. Artemis tapped a key and his face appeared on every screen in Foaly's booth. The instant his face appeared Holly snapped out of it. Her first action was to reach instinctively for her weapon, then she relaxed, and her face completely hardened. Any trace of the private emotion she had shown before was immediately wiped away, everything apart from a slight redness around the eyes.

Artemis's own face was a mask of arrogance and confidence. "Good day to you, Commander. I have a favour to ask."

**This is just a quick message to say thanks to everyone who has had the patience to keep reading after such a long time without updates. My Uni work really took me over, but I've decided that I need to make time for writing this stuff as it helps me develop as a writer and it's good fun! Therefore I shall hopefully still be updating far more regularly, though perhaps not this regularly...**

**On another note, I've marked this as T-rated, and perhaps this chapter will show why. However I would like to make it lower just because most people don't change the search parameters and so won't see this. It won't become sexual and probably not any more violent than this, though if it does I shall definitely make this T. Also if you found the middle section of this a little creepy rest assured that it does have a purpose and is not merely gratuitous violence/bondage... trust me ;) Anyway let me know if you think lowering the rating as it stands at the moment would be fine.**

**As always R&R as I need to feel appreciated!**


	4. Chapter 4

Holly was utterly dumbstruck by the seemingly magical appearance of Artemis Fowl on the walls around her. Before she could even think about the situation, the apparition spoke:

"Good day to you, Commander. I have a favour to ask."

"He's hacked into our system!" Foaly yelped at her, then started pressing buttons and flipping switches. Nothing happened in response. Holly still did not speak, gazing at Fowl's huge face in front of her with a blank expression. She was more surprised than anything else.

"I apologise for these rather blunt tactics but time is of the essence in this situation. I need to ask for your help in something of great importance to me, and this was the only way that would ensure your speedy response." Foaly had not yet stopped his frantic attempts to purge Fowl from the system, and Holly doubted he had even heard what the Mud-man had said. She sighed and gathered herself.

"Fowl. Whilst it is true that you are not currently considered an enemy of the people, neither are you considered their friend, and acts of blatant hostility like this could lead to your current status being changed. Now get off my screen right now and I might consider listening to what you have to say at a time that is convenient to _me_." Holly had begun to develop that aura of anger and hostility that Root had been famous for, something which seemed to be common to LEP commanders.

"Commander Short," said Artemis, and Holly noted that he refrained from using her first name, probably out of consideration for her feelings. "Believe me when I say I would not have contacted you if it was not absolutely necessary. I would never have come to you if I did not need to. I want nothing more than to live my life, separate from the People."

His words hurt her slightly, and she felt as though his words were about more than just the matter he had come to discuss. "Why did you have to come back at all Artemis? We've left you alone for all this time. Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" It was unlike her to talk like this, but seeing Artemis again had shaken her.

"Holly, I-"

She cut him short. "The People do not do business with the Humans." With that she turned to leave. However the door would not open.

"I'm sorry about this Commander, but I need you to listen to me. I have taken full control of the entirety of the LEP's computer system. I don't want to have to force you, but I am perfectly capable of doing so should I need to." Holly's eyes narrowed, glaring at Fowl with his own crystal-blue eye. The anger helped her to quell her own feelings for Artemis, and the threat gave her something to fight against.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't choose to take this as an act of overt hostility. Which, let me inform you I am perfectly within my rights to do."

Artemis had to restrain himself from kneading his temples in frustration. He had foreseen that Holly would be difficult, but she seemed to have lost all vestiges of common sense.

"Trust me when I say it's not in your best interest to do so."

"Trust you!" Again her composure slipped. "I'll never do that again!"

"Well then, at least listen to what I have to say. What do you have to lose?"

Kamal was in an unusually good mood, which was mostly due to the conversation he had just had. Apparently the previous exchange point in Siberia had been dropped, due to the way in which Fowl had rescued his father, and a more secure location was being chosen. Which would mean no Arctic temperatures, no survival rations and, best of all, no radiation. Instead they would be taking the hostage to the Yamantau underground complex, a huge unfinished military base now abandoned since the end of the Cold War. Kamal didn't honestly care where the base was so long as he could be safe and warm.

Opal had, in the mean time, been plotting. Though shaken, she was keeping her resolve together by imagining what she could do to these people if she managed to escape and get out of harms way. She was confident that her husband could easily outwit her kidnappers and was probably already formulating a plan to rescue her, however all the genius in the world isn't much help when someone has a gun against your wife's head. So, she decided, she would need to escape. She hadn't really gotten much further than that, truth be told, but at least she now had a goal. And whilst Opal was more of a scientist than a strategist, having an IQ in the 200's means you don't really have much difficulty outsmarting the average criminal.

Now that she knew she had to escape, the next stage was to figure out not only a way of doing so, but a way to let Artemis know that she had escaped from harm's way. The second part would not be too difficult - whilst working on the prototypes for Butler, Opal had done extensive experimentation, even going so far as to give herself several implants. One of these was a communication implant that could give her access to his private mobile number, activated by speaking into the palm of the hand. A few of her other implants would perhaps give her an edge in trying to escape but she hadn't really designed any for combat. So, she reasoned, she would have to plan, and wait for her opportunity.

"This is beyond ironic..." Foaly couldn't resist chipping in from behind Holly, regretting it when she glared at him.

"Let me get this straight. You want us to help you rescue your wife?"

"Yes."

"And I assume you can understand why I have to refuse you?"

"Holly, please!"

"There's nothing I can do about this Fowl! Even if I wanted to help you rescue Koboi, which I can tell you right now I don't, do you really think that I could get support for this! This is completely different from the case with your father, that time it was as a last resort and you had something to offer us. This time you want us to help you rescue a criminal, a known enemy of the People, and you have given no reason for us to do so!"

"Fowl."

"What?"

"Her name isn't Koboi any more. It's Fowl. She's my wife Holly, and all I want is to have her back. I can offer you anything you want, gold if you want it."

"We're not mercenaries Fowl. In any case that's not the point. We only worked with you before because we needed help. You expect me to help you out of the goodness of my heart?"

Artemis smiled ruefully, and looked into her eyes. "Once you said that Artemis Fowl never did anything without wanting something in return. I like to think you taught me to do things out of the goodness of my heart. Is it so unreasonable to expect you to help me for the exact same reasons?"

_You broke my heart a long time ago Artemis. _The thought rose up from the back of her mind like a snake, and she squashed it down. Still his words hit a nerve. Truth be told, if Holly wanted to, she probably could get support from the council for a mission to help Artemis. There were plenty of Fairies who vocally defended Fowl's actions; younger, more liberal Fairies saw Artemis as a romantic figure, a noble savage in a brutal human world, a bright light for the human races future, as well as someone who had protected the People in the past. Even if there were none of this sort in the Council, many of them still believed Fowl to be a friend of the people, and Holly was generally seen by those who did not know her personally as a friend of Artemis Fowl. In fact very few people realised that his marrying Opal Koboi would have any effect on Holly. It was unthinkable.

Artemis sighed, and a look of deep regret passed over his face fleetingly. "I didn't want to have to do this Commander, believe me, and I know you will only think the worse of me, however..." he took a deep breath. "If you will not help me willingly then I am perfectly capable of blackmailing you. I have control of the LEP's computer, and the damage I could do would be terrible. You know that I would."

Holly's jaw set, but inside she was smiling, for two reasons. One, she now didn't have to make a difficult choice, and two, she could start to loathe Artemis again. And there's nothing like a healthy disgust for someone to crush those niggling feelings of self doubt.

**Sorry for the gap in updates, I've been really busy. Also apologies for the lack of much happening in this chapter, but rest assured that it'll all start kicking off soon. As always R&R and any constructive criticism on the characters and characterisation in particular would be particularly welcome. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me so far, and particularly to anyone who's left me feedback. **


	5. Chapter 5

Holly insisted that only she take part in the attempt to rescue Opal; she refused to let any of her officers endanger their lives for Fowl's benefit, and Artemis seemed perfectly happy with only Holly, providing Foaly would be giving them support from Haven. As she prepared her equipment, and the supplies Artemis had asked for, she felt surprisingly light at heart. It was just like the old days, when they would be teaming up to fight some new menace, and, though the circumstances were different, she couldn't help feeling a little rush as she got ready for this new challenge. Whilst her mind was raging and her heart was icy, her body was dying for the action, pumped up at the prospect of working at Artemis's side again. In truth, Holly knew that she missed those days most of all, and it was only natural to do so. She knew that being a LEP officer was more than just a job to her, and when Artemis was her friend she had lived for the moments when they orchestrated a perfect plan together. She also knew that part of her wanted to put the past behind them, to become friends again, like they had been. But then again, she thought they had become more than friends, right before the end.

"Alright, listen up Commander Short." Foaly's voice came through her helmet earphones. "Acting Commander Kelp has been briefed on your mission and is having a Retrieval team sent to Russia on standby, just in case."

Of course. Because being 'in Russia' would naturally mean they were close to every other part of Russia. Geography had never been Trouble's strong point. "OK Foaly. I'm fairly sure we won't need it though. I wouldn't trust Foal to do anything else but whatever plan he's come up with will probably be as flawless as always."

"I guess," Foaly said distractedly. "OK listen up. Flare ETA is in 5 minutes, so get yourself into that pod. We're popping you out in Tara, you'll make your way to the Fowl mansion from there. I'm assuming Artemis will get you all to Russia. In the meantime I'm gonna start checking all possible routes out of England, which is gonna take me some time. They could have taken the helicopter back or they could have put down and taken a ship, and there's been nothing in any of the mud-man records, meaning it must have been done illegally. I'll get in touch when I find out where exactly she's being taken."

"Roger that."

*****

"OK Fowl, what's the plan?"

Artemis sighed inwardly. "Commander Short. At least wait for my invitation to enter the building before getting down to business." She pushed past him, looking for a human she didn't want to punch in the face.

"Holly!" Juliet was there, a big smile spread across her pretty face. Holly smiled back, a genuine expression of warmth, and she accepted her embrace. Her quarrel was with Artemis, and though she hadn't seen any of her other friends for years, it didn't mean they couldn't still be her friends.

She drew away from Juliet and looked around, frowning slightly. "Where's Butler?" Something flickered across Artemis's face, but was gone in an instant.

"Artemis?"

"He'll be with us shortly. He's not been so well since that time when you healed him. He's just resting up right now."

Holly frowned, sensing a lie. But it was always so difficult to tell with Artemis, he could use apparently exposed emotions just to manipulate you. "Well let's get on with this anyway."

Artemis switched on a plasma monitor and brought up a set of blue prints. "This is the Yamantau Mountain underground military complex. Construction was started on this vast underground structure just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As such it has never been fully put into use, and only a small portion of its 400 square mile capacity is used at one time. It's the perfect place to set up a protected hostage exchange."

A protected anything, thought Holly. It was an enormous space, in fact the only thing bigger than it was Haven. Yet this was solely for the military, and it wasn't even used. It struck Holly as oddly symbolic of Human activity. Often huge and impressive but nearly always with dubious moral intentions, and would probably be wasted in the end. But then again, perhaps she was just being particularly vindictive.

Artemis was still talking. "As the complex itself is over a huge area, we will need to know exactly where they have set up their base. Obviously it must be somewhere that is disused, relatively far away from the area that _is_ used and accessible from elsewhere than the official entrance. This still leaves the number of possible areas far too high, so we'll need to either wait for Foaly to do some scans, or for a ransom note to come through. Either way we can't know for certain where exactly they are for a while yet. Until then there's not a lot we can do about making a plan."

Holly scowled. Couldn't the genius come up with something better than the basic LEP training programme already told her? "Well then, let's at least get to Russia, if we know that's where we're going anyway."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

A deep voice spoke from behind them, and Holly turned around, smiling. "Butler!"

The manservant looked surprisingly healthy, younger too. "Hello Ho- Commander Short." he said, correcting himself.

Holly laughed and punched his arm affectionately. "Don't worry Butler. I'm still on first name terms with _you,_" she said, then immediately felt childish. Firstly for emphasising the _you, _which was just about the least subtle way she could have made a dig at Artemis, and secondly because she didn't even call Butler by his first name anyway. She blushed a little, slightly glad she had her back to Artemis. "Well you know what I mean."

Butler laughed off the awkwardness. "Well I suppose it's an improvement on Mud-man anyway. When did you get here?"

She was grateful to him for defusing the tension in the air. She couldn't stand Artemis being there, not only was she not his friend but it made it harder for her to get on with her real friends. It felt like his presence hung in the air around her, cloying her senses. "A couple of hours ago," she said absently, "Fowl told me you were resting. How are you feeling?"

"Well... not tired at all actually. I've been feeling a lot better recently -" Butler glanced at Artemis, who shook his head gently without looking up from his laptop "- and I think it's because of this new treatment I've been taking. I haven't felt this young since... well since I was young!"

She smiled, but something concerned her. "I hope you aren't expecting Butler to come with us Fowl. He may be feeling well but that still doesn't mean he's in any shape for combat."

Artemis frowned, irritation obvious in his features, but it was Butler who interrupted. "Just you try and stop me," he laughed, "I'm fitter than you anyway. With your cushy new office job I doubt you've worked out in a while." This wasn't true, but Holly knew he was just trying to push aside her protests with his humour.

Artemis interrupted their conversation. "Don't worry about Butler, Commander. If you think I'd let him into a combat situation if I didn't know he was capable of it then you've misjudged me."

It wouldn't be the first time, she thought, giving him a poisonous look.

Butler saw her and cut in. "And if you don't believe Artemis, then do you really think I'd be stupid enough to endanger the mission with idiot heroics?"

Holly blushed. "Of course not Butler, I'm just saying that if even the fairies couldn't heal your condition with magic, then how can any human medicine have healed you this well?"

To her astonishment, the giant manservant seemed embarrassed, and tripped over his words when he spoke; "It's ah - not exactly official medicine. Mrs Fowl got it for me."

Now Holly was confused. "What? Fowl's mother? She's not into that Herbal medicine voodoo is she?"

Butler actually stuttered in his next sentence. "Oh, what? No! Uh- well, It-uh, wasn't _that_ Mrs Fowl... you see?"

Now Holly really was embarrassed. An awkward silence fell over the room. Artemis carefully avoided Holly's eyes, secretly a little offended. Although he was also a little flattered. After this long she still couldn't think of Opal as his wife?

Luckily at that moment Juliet burst into the room. "I made us all smoothies! Blueberry, passion-fruit and Banana." And at that moment Holly forgot all about the atmosphere. She couldn't deny that there were definite perks to humans and their luxuries. And they probably ate like this every day...

"No wonder Koboi wanted to be human," she muttered under her breath.

*****

Right at that moment Opal would probably have done anything to get back to her house and her luxury. Even a cold shower and a bed with a mattress would have done. Of course, if she had known Holly Short was sitting on _her_ sofa, eating _her_ food and drinking _her _smoothies, she probably would have exploded with rage. If she hadn't been feeling so sorry for herself that is.

Despite her planning, Opal had seen no chance to orchestrate an escape plan. They had put the big perverted one on guard, and her hope that he would eventually get bored with watching her discomfort had been sorely misguided. The man's eyes hardly ever left her, and his gaze unnerved her so much that she couldn't think straight. To make matters worse, her cell was just about the worst place she had ever been in her life, and that included her brief stint as a farmer's daughter. She had a bed that consisted of a concrete slab jutting out of the wall and a sleeping bag, no toilet, except for a drain in one corner of the room that she mentally blocked out of existence for her own sanity's sake, and nothing else. Apart from a bullet proof glass wall on one side of her cell. Just to ensure she had no privacy whatsoever. She had only been there for a day, and was desperately trying to delay the inevitable trip to the bathroom. She physically shuddered just thinking about it. Her perfect skin already felt filmed with dirt, slightly sticky, and her long, dark hair was knotted and greasy. She was suffering mentally too, utterly intimidated by her surroundings and starting to get some of her old insecurities back, bitterness, which she thought she had lost forever.

_What if he doesn't come to rescue me? What if he decides it's not worth it. I could die here. He could just get himself another girlfriend. Holly Short would take him. _

Thinking of Holly however, steeled Opal's resolve. She had _beaten_ Holly. Artemis was _hers_ now. And if Short could take a kidnapping and stay standing, then so could she! Opal had changed a lot in her years married to Artemis, but because of the difference in Fairy lifetimes she hadn't really physically matured in the way a human would have in that time. Artemis had become a man, whereas her mind, her body, was basically in the same biological and chemical condition as it had been when she had been a raving loony. Opal had been one pretty insecure individual to begin with, so it wasn't exactly difficult for her to fall back into her insecurities. But for now, she was holding together.

_You'd better get here soon Artemis! S_he thought angrily. Then another voice inside her, a scared, quiet voice, added: _P__lease. I need you. _

Her brutal jailer grinned at her.

**Update! I'm a little more confident about this chapter, I've had real bad writer's block (I'm a writer. Yeah...) recently. Anyway, this chapter sees a little more mild Opal torment for those who like it (you know who you are) and a little bit of female insecurity. What a sexist I am! I've also decided to do internal italicised monologues for Opal only because I think it suits her character, (mental) even though I haven't done it so far in this fic. I'm trying to cut down on it because one of my fellow students was mocking some Author for doing it, and I felt a bit of a simpleton :(**

**Also what's the rule on songfics? I heard the lyrics have to be in the public domain before will let you publish one. How would you know if they were? Expect some Fleetwood Mac songfics about Holly if I'm allowed :D ('running in the shadooows, damn your love, damn your lies. I can still hear you saaaying you would never break the chain.')**

**Edit: OMG CROSSOVER SEARCH FUNCTION IS EPIC.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everyone! So finished my first year of Uni, and hoping to finally get back to writing. I had exams this last term, so really haven't been attempting to write fanfics at all, which I really missed. I also have a confession to make: I wasn't really certain about the details for this fic. I knew where I wanted it to go, and how I wanted it to end, but bridging the gaps is not something I'd planned for, and I've been desperately trying to think of ways to do it. **

**So yeah, if anyone's still interested in this well, enjoy! HOPEFULLY** **I can update much more frequently now.**

"So what's the plan here?"

Holly had asked the question. They were in Artemis's personal jet, flying to Moscow. Moscow wasn't close to the Yamantau complex, but it was the best place to enter the country considering that they weren't supposed to know where Opal was being held hostage yet. Artemis had received an email telling him to meet at St. Petersburg, so clearly the Russians did not even wish to give him the chance to get anywhere near her, fearful that he might magically snatch Opal from them, as he had done his father. This was going to make it more difficult.

"Firstly we have to do something about the St. Petersburg meet. If the Russians are tipped off they will kill my wife." He swallowed, suddenly very dry in the mouth. "Worse, if we refuse to follow their instructions precisely they will carry out their threat as a matter of course. Reputation is what is important to these people. Which is exactly why they will kill both Opal and I as soon as they get the chance. If they think I've escaped, they will make the most of what they have and-" He cut himself short

"So, what's the plan? We could take out the men they send to St. Petersburg? I could stun them all in an instant."

"No. If they lose communication with the meet group then they will assume they have been attacked, which will break the terms of the so-called exchange."

Holly frowned. "If we go to St. Petersburg, we'll have to either deal with the group or do what they ask. But we can't deal with the group and if you show yourself you'll be instantly killed. What do we do?"

Butler entered the conversation, stepping out of the cockpit: "That's why you're not going to St. Petersburg. I am."

*****

Opal couldn't hold on for much longer. Already her position was becoming unbearable, she felt like there was a great weight being pressed on her, a constant discomfort and pain pushing her, till she felt like she had to stop, to give in utterly.

"I need a wee!" She screamed, startling the dozing guard awake. It wasn't Boris, which was a small comfort. He scowled at her, indicating the gutter in the corner.

"Please." She stared at him, her eyes begging him to help her, and he couldn't help but soften slightly.

"I take you there. I watch you." She nearly protested again, but realised this was the best offer she was going to get.

On her way to the toilet, the young Russian who had looked out for her earlier in the helicopter met them. Though he couldn't have been out of his twenties, Opal could see the marks of a life of organised crime etched into his features, livid scars and cuts patterning his rugged face. He glanced at her as he walked past, then stopped the other Russian. Speaking in Russian, Opal could just about understand them; some remnant of her gift of tongues had seemed to stay with her:

"Sergei. What do you want?"

"It's nearly my shift, yes? Want me to take care of this business?"

The other Russian snorted. "You want to watch this rich whore take a shit, you enjoy yourself. I'm going for a smoke. See you later?"

Sergei smiled slightly. "Sure. Get some rest."

"Ha. You don't have to tell me that." And with that control of her had been handed over. Opal didn't know whether this meant Sergei was a trusted comrade or that the Mafiya members really didn't care about what happened to her, though she suspected the latter. The powerful Russian grabbed her shoulder roughly, though not violently, and steered her through the narrow corridor.

Once inside, he loosened her wrists and shoved her into a cubicle, closing the door behind him. To her surprise the toilet had almost no smell, and she guessed it had never been used. The man pressed against her didn't smell as bad as she might have expected either, the large, muscular body smelling more of tobacco than bodily odour. He crouched down in front of her, bringing their faces level. Opal grimaced and avoided his gaze. She couldn't believe she was being made to do this. She sat on the toilet seat, trembling as she started to pull down her jeans.

"Hey, woah. Stop that." The Russian interrupted her movement with a babble of broken English.

"What?"

"You want to go uh, private?"

Opal was confused. "Of course, but... don't you want to watch?"

If anything he seemed insulted. "Watch? I don't think I understand."

She blinked at him, then rolled her eyes and spoke in Russian. "Yes, I want to go in private, but you're in here!"

His eyes widened as he suddenly understood. "Oh! No, I want to talk to you! Sorry, my English is very poor. You speak good Russian?"

"Yes, good enough. Talk about what?"

He seemed to have lost himself somewhat. He gazed at her for a few seconds before continuing. "I can get you out of here. I'm an undercover agent working for the FSB. I've been working for Britva for years, but when the kidnapping took place I was ordered to come here for you. We did not know who you were when I was sent, but now I have seen you - You are Mrs Fowl, correct?" She nodded slowly. "Then I shall rescue you!"

She looked at him a long time, her heart leaping at the thought of escape from her hell, but at the same time refusing to believe her good fortune. "Why should you want to save me?"

"Your husband is a very powerful man, yes? Call it... an act of goodwill."

"I don't buy it."

"OK, so don't. You might as well come with me anyway though. It's not like you'll be better off by staying here."

Opal frowned, sensing a trap. It was true however, that her situation wasn't getting any better. Unless of course, Artemis was coming to rescue her.

"I'll think about it."

*****

Holly ground her teeth in exasperation, then gave up. "OK, fine. I'm going to trust your judgement on this Butler, against MY judgement." Butler nodded, knowing how difficult it was for a commander to surrender command and responsibility over her team. Artemis too felt slightly guilty for making Holly accept this plan with know information - a younger Artemis would have been pleased to get the obstacle about the way, but instead he gave her a reassuring, genuine smile. She felt the warmth of his gaze on her and ignored it.

"So," he continued, "That's decided then. It will be our task to rescue Opal. Butler will track down and neutralise the team in St. Petersburg. If he can do this before the designated meeting time, we can rescue Opal before they suspect anything, and Butler will rendezvous with us in Yamantau. Any questions?"

_Plenty_, thought Holly, but she had asked all of her questions once already. She was beginning to feel like a pawn again; it was a long time since she had taken orders from anyone. Still, there was something comfortable about the experience, it felt like she was stepping into a routine. In a way that was true.

"Artemis?" she said, then immediately cursed herself for it. She had fallen back into informality far too easily.

"Yes Commander Short?" He replied, never skipping a beat. She studied his features sullenly, but he showed no evidence that he had noticed the slip. Though she knew he would have done, would even now be allowing this to factor into his equations. What would the mental note in the back of his vast mind say? _Former friend shows signs she is already over massive betrayal. Explore possibilities. _

Amusing though making fun of Artemis's subconscious was, Holly noticed he was looking at her expectantly. "Can I speak to you alone please?"

He smiled in an overly friendly manner. "Of course Commander. Butler." The manservant nodded and slipped silently out of the door.

"So, what is it?"

As soon as Butler was beyond the sound-proof door, Holly exploded. "What do you think you're doing here, Fowl?! How can you expect me to go into a combat situation on the complete lack of information you have given me?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"I'm sure you do! Aside from the St. Petersburg mission, I've no idea why you need me, or any of the LEP here for your rescue plan."

"Why, Commander, you do surprise me. I need the LEP's technical might and a competent officer to comm- to work with."

She ignored the slip: "Don't give me that Fowl. I know your own technical achievements are more than capable of accomplishing the plan you've set out. Opal continues to surpass us in every way, don't think I don't know that. I'm the one who has to sign off the bills for Foaly's counselling for Frond's sake!"

Artemis grinned, enjoying her intelligence and aggression despite himself. Not that he didn't get that from Opal; still, it was nice to have this familiar presence back in his life. _It's been too long, Holly, _was what he wanted to say. Instead he said:

"Very well, I suppose I had better explain in more detail. Should everything go according to plan, a Fairy operative can do two things for me which I cannot do for myself. The first, of course, is magic - in particular the _mesmer_ and shielding are particularly useful when it comes to infiltrating a secure complex. Secondly, by working with the LEP I have support from a highly trained and experienced field officer," he glanced at Holly, who mentally kicked herself for almost blushing at the compliment, "and of course, from the LEP's technology and surveillance."

She nodded - textbook procedure for an Artemis Fowl mission. "All the same -" she began, but he cut her off.

"On the other hand, plans do not always work out... to plan. If anything were to go wrong, anything at all, and I had not used every possible method available in my rescue attempt - if anything happened and I could have stopped it, I..." He swallowed, blinking heavily. "But that is none of your concern, Commander. You're not here because I persuaded you to help me." He gave her a bitter smile. "This is blackmail, remember?"

Holly bit her lip, and held her tongue.

**Edit: Uugh. I had pretty much finished this a month ago, I thought I'd add this quick addendum to excuse myself. Due to many personal issues, including Swine Flu, although I had almost finished this a while back, I've left it for ages. As I said above, I will try and update this more frequently, and hopefully get it finished before I go back to university. As always, thanks for any support, and R&R, whatever you thought of it. **


	7. Chapter 7

St. Petersburg, Russia's infamous 'capital of crime'. Even Butler would normally feel nervous whilst walking through some of the city's more disreputable areas - where normally his sheer size would be a deterrent, here it could be taken as a challenge. Still, things had improved since he had last been here; organised crime had mostly dissolved and been replaced with regular street crime, and attacks driven by poverty or drug addictions were present in all major cities to some extent. And today, as he was now, Butler had no need to be afraid of anything. Theoretically.

It was a good location for a hostage exchange; respectable citizens knew to stay away from the worst areas, the street gangs would stay away from the Mafiya and the rival syndicates were far less of a presence these days. Conversely, it would have been difficult for Artemis, had he not seen through the trap, to set up a base or plan an operation in the heavily populated city. Butler would normally have either asked for weeks to set up a base of operations and survey the area and if this had not been granted, flat-out refused to go through with it. It was technically a nightmare scenario; the number of variables was enormous, any number of things could go wrong. No responsible military commander would even dream of sending a lone soldier to deal with the situation, and Butler understood the difficulty Holly had experienced in letting him go, worse that she didn't have a say in it.

The meet was supposedly planned for midnight, though Butler was ready to begin the operation at 10. No sense in risking it. He leaned against a wall outside the dark narrow street he was supposed to travel down, lighting a cigarette, though not smoking it. He'd had a glimpse of an early grave a few months ago, and didn't fancy seeing it again any time soon. He glanced down the alley, shadowy and impenetrable. Anyone would have been a fool to go down there, under any circumstances. The Russians had barely even bothered to make their true plans hidden it seemed; it wouldn't have taken a genius to see the trap.

He glanced down the alley again, squinting. "Activate Infra-red."

Technically he didn't need to speak aloud, but it felt right somehow. Immediately his vision was overlaid with a heat sensitive array of colours, far more detailed than any army specification NVD's. He could make out at least twenty heat signatures, five at the end of the alley and fifteen in the run-down buildings that overshadowed the alleyway. He smiled and leant against the wall behind him and a reactive-adaptive mesh of cam-foil immediately took on the appearance of the wall behind him, disguising him utterly in the darkness. He turned around, and began to climb up the wall like a lizard, heading for the invitingly broken window where the first target sat, quietly enjoying a smoke whilst watching for the arrival of Artemis Fowl the second.

*****

Artemis checked his watch. 10:15. "Go Holly, go!" Holly rolled her eyes at the urgency in his voice, the military aggression ill-fitting his manner of speech. She shielded, and made her way towards her objective. The useful thing about the cave complex was that it was huge and largely unsecured. As such, it was possible for Foaly to run a scan from a satellite in orbit and find possible entry points into the building. Of course, the Russians were not expecting to be attacked, and in any case, it would be much harder the closer they got to where Opal was being held.

"Holly?" This was Foaly, whispering in her earpiece.

"I'm with you, Foaly. What have you got for me?"

"Pretty standard mission here, Holly. You stealth your way to Opal's cell, mesmerise any guards that may be there and blast open the cell with your neutrino. The only thing is to make sure to be quick. Though Artemis doesn't think the Russians will suspect anything for at least another two hours, they may be planning to get rid of her earlier than they said."

"Why? They've no reason to do so."

"Tell that to Mr. Lovestruck back at base. I'd take my time if I were you."

"I'm a professional you know, Foaly. We can't all be cowboys like you; some of us have got to maintain standards." Her tone was light, and a smile played around her lips. Holly's reputation for rule-breaking was infamous.

"Speaking of standards," he said, and she could practically hear him grinning over the earpiece, "I hope you'll remember that the LEP takes Police brutality very seriously. When you rescue our Pixie friend, I mean."

She grinned in the darkness, the proverbial Cheshire cat. "Of course I will."

*****

Butler dispatched the last hit-man with a swift jab with his forefingers to the burly man's solar plexus. He reeled over instantly, the impact to the major nervous cluster causing him to vomit and lose consciousness almost instantly. He rose from his combat stance and performed a sweep of the area with his night vision once more before deactivating his camouflage. Mission accomplished. He checked the time: 10:15. Perfect. He radioed through to Artemis:

"Artemis."

The young man's voice sounded tense through Butler's perfectly constructed audio systems. "Butler! Everything going according to plan?"

Butler smiled at the break in his composure. "Of course. Holly - eh, Commander Short has just left?"

At the other end, Artemis smiled. It was strange for both of them to keep up this attitude towards Holly. It was like speaking in a foreign language - he still thought of her as Holly, his friend Holly. He kept having to translate his personal thoughts into this formal speech. He suddenly felt very sad. "Yes, Butler. If all goes according to plan, we should be done in less than an hour." He frowned. "Speaking of which, how are your systems? All fully operational?"

"Everything worked perfectly. It's truly remarkable."

"Hmm." Artemis didn't really want to talk about it. Technically of course he _knew_ that his objections were invalid - it was no different to a life support machine or a prosthetic limb, only made infinitely more efficient, mobile and practical. Put it down to the Uncanny Valley effect, he thought absently.

"Artemis?" Butler interrupted his musing on the arguments in support of that particular behavioural theory. Artemis had a tendency to forget the situation whenever some idea or theory came up in his mind, and the trait had seemed to develop as he had got older, or perhaps as his thoughts had turned away from the hazardous, fast-paced world of criminal schemings.

"Ah, sorry Butler. If you're sure you are finished, you should rendezvous with us immediately."

"Roger that." And he was gone.

Artemis gazed at the mountain. Holly had disappeared inside somewhere, and he caught himself biting his lower lip in anxiety. He was somehow even more anxious now that she had gone in. He chuckled ironically. _Not_ _'somehow', Artemis. Now that Opal and Holly are both in danger, you're doubly worried. Don't try and fool yourself. _

He continued to stare intently ahead. Surely nothing could go wrong?

*****

Holly flew silently over the head of a pair of Russians, her new wing design utterly silent. A new prototype. Being Commander did have its perks; though of course it would have been possible to complete the mission without all the latest gizmos. Root surely would have frowned upon his successor's reliance on the "pony's" bag of tricks. Holly smiled as she thought of Root. Though the pain had far from left her memories, she had accepted his passing, and the pain was softer. She felt the same way for her father. It was almost comforting to her that she still felt sadness at her losses. It proved that the people she missed still mattered to her.

_Like Artemis?_, came the treacherous thought at the back of her head. She sighed deeply. All of her old feelings and emotions were flooding back to her, completely unchecked. It almost didn't matter to her that she was rescuing her mortal enemy for the man who had betrayed her. She was working with Artemis and Butler again, she was out on the surface (well, not right now), and knee-deep in a risky, madcap scheme. She just felt right - comfortable.

It wasn't helping her focus that the mission was proving to be extremely easy. She hadn't even had to ask Foaly for any help yet, though she had had to cut him off over her headset; his constant snide remarks, whilst funny when she had been back at home sulking, were starting to annoy her. Other than that, all she had to do was occasionally slip aside when someone walked along, and follow the big red path on her HUD.

She was coming to the cell now, and there was no-one around. Odd. She was expecting at least to have to mesmerise a few guards, perhaps even stun them and make a break for it. But it was eerily quiet. The door was wide open. Holly felt her heart start to pound in her chest; she felt sick. She doubled her speed, blasting her way through the open doorway, staring around the room, at the empty cell, in disbelief. She felt her head reel, and forced herself to calm down.

"Artemis!"

"Holly?"

"Artemis she's... not here."

There was no reply.

**DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!!!!! This chapter is a little short, but I thought it'd be nice to end it there and let it all unfold next time. Thanks to those who reviewed, I really appreciate the appreciation (:P) after all this time I left it stale. New update as soon as I can!**


	8. Chapter 8

"It can't be..."

"Artemis, I'm sure it's not what you think... perhaps it's just -"

Holly was cut off by the sound of an alarm shrieking through the concrete catacombs. She started, momentarily dazed by the deafening noise.

Foaly overrode her headset mute: "Holly, get out of there right now! Everyone in that area is heading right for you, right now!"

Artemis pitched in, "Come on, Holly, just get out of there for now. If they're coming to the cell it means Opal must have escaped, so she's somewhere else right now. Just save yourself!"

She sighed, and rolled her eyes. It was nice to have people worry about you, but she could very well have taken care of herself. A pile of unconscious gangsters would have escalated the situation unnecessarily, she supposed. She plotted a different route out of the complex and opened the throttle on her wings, shooting out of the cell in seconds.

*****

Opal was sitting in her squalid prison, feeling miserable, when Sergei rushed through the door. The guard was surprised, and rose to his feet angrily, but before he could protest he was hit by a taser and nineteen pulses per second of high-voltage electricity forced his muscles into contraction, flooring him. The other man strode over to him, quickly cuffing his unconscious body before dragging him somewhere that Opal couldn't see. He returned, slightly out of breath.

"We have to go, now!"

"What?"

"This is the time Mr. Fowl is to meet up with the hit team in St. Petersburg, they will be coming to kill you soon!"

"What! St. Petersburg?"

"No time to explain. Come with me now if you want to live!" Opal nodded dumbly, slightly in shock at the developing situation. She allowed him to drag her out of the cell and down a corridor, dragging her feet on the concrete.

Sergei spoke in a stream of broken English as they ran away from her cell. "They were planning... send Fowl to St. Petersburg... keep him away and get rid of him... when they got rid of him, get rid of you too. So I take you now, take you to safe place. Meet him later"

Opal replied in fluent Russian, eager to avoid any confusion quickly. "What makes you think Artemis will survive being 'got rid of'?"

The Russian smiled sardonically. "Do you think he is going to be easy to kill? He is like cockroach, always get out somehow." She smiled back, viciously; he was right of course. Artemis had outsmarted the mafiya once already, and this 'plan' that they had hatched wasn't nearly intelligent enough to fool him.

She yelped as he yanked her arm round a sharp corner, nearly wrenching it from her shoulder. She shook him off angrily. "Come on, let's go!" she snarled at him, running as fast as her Pixie legs could carry her towards safety.

*****

Holly had easily avoided the searching guards, and was hovering over the mountain at 2000 feet, watching for what was happening below. She couldn't see into the actual complex from above; it far too dense for her limited helmet scanners to detect the heat signatures of the people inside, but she was hoping Opal would emerge somewhere outside, where she could be snatched easily.

However something else distracted her. Artemis was standing in plain sight, staring through a pair of binoculars, seemingly unaware of the sentries converging on his position.

"D'Arvit!" She swore, and tipped herself into a steep dive. It was too late to carry him away without the Russians seeing them. What could she do? She would have to use it, she decided. _No other way. _

She landed next to Artemis and began fumbling with her belt. "Holly? Are you ok? You're not hurt at all?" Artemis's friendly concern was almost comical, totally oblivious as he was to the situation. He frowned at her frantic action. "What on earth are you doing?"

"Shhhh!" She hissed at him. "We're surrounded! Get on the floor and shut up!" He obeyed immediately, sensing the urgency in her voice. He threw himself to the ground just as Holly found what she was looking for. "Got it!" she whispered, and threw herself over Artemis, flinging the sheet of cam foil over them both.

The next thing Artemis was aware of was a massive thump, as though a giant had trod on the earth right next to him, and he was suddenly falling. He hit the earth hard, and coughed hard, spitting out the earth that had entered his mouth.

"Eugh. Pffth." He recovered and looked around, bemused. "We seem to be underground." He hesitated, thinking rapidly. "Some sort of anticompression device? The earth directly below the ground is displaced, and the space we occupied maintained below ground? Meanwhile the earth above us is supercompressed to..." He knocked the ceiling with his hand, "leave a solid roof of earth over the occupants. Quite ingenious."

Holly ignored his innocent enthusiasm, grinding her teeth. She started to unconsciously fidget, flexing her fingers and clenching her fists.

Artemis noticed her anxiety. "I'm sorry, Holly, I forgot. Are you OK?"

She tried to laugh it off. "Much better for you reminding me, thanks."

The joke bounced right off Artemis. "Don't worry. We'll be out of here soon. It's perfectly safe in here, and it's only natural that you'd be worried. Remember the surface is just above us; nothing can possibly happen."

She rolled her head back, closing her eyes. Of course Artemis knew how to deal with any psychological disorder. The words helped her though, and she let his warm voice wash over her as she tried to let her fear dissipate. She breathed deeply, calming herself down. "I'm alright, Artemis. Thank-you."

His eyes widened slightly, but he smiled anyway. Holly missed the slight surprise. "No problem. Now, what's going on up there?"

There were voices above them, and footsteps actually passed over their head. They heard yells of alarm, shouted instructions and dogs, barking. They heard some men stop directly above them, and speak urgently:

"Did you hear?"

"Yes, the hostage escaped. And we still haven't heard from St. Petersburg."

Next to her, Holly felt Artemis exhale heavily in relief.

"Shit! How can he have done this?"

"Apparently he didn't. The boss thinks we had a mole, that someone else has taken the hostage. There's no way Fowl could have gotten here from St. Petersburg in that time anyway."

"A Spy?"

"I reckon so. Must have been an inside job anyway, no way anyone could have sneaked in there without us knowing."

"Did you hear that two of the guards have gone missing? No-one has any idea where they are."

"You think Fowl killed them... or that one of them might be the spy!"

"Well, duh. Anyway, there's no way one man can have got far. So we're patrolling the perimeter to try and find him. That means you guys too!"

"What! We're not on sentry duty tonight!"

"Idiot, this is important. You think anyone cares about your beauty sleep tonight? Just do your god-damn job."

There were a series of arguments, filled with threats and curses. Artemis and Holly huddled in their hole, absorbing every revelation. Eventually it was decided that five of them were patrolling this area, and the one in charge seemed to leave.

Holly trembled slightly. "I guess that's it. We're trapped here."

She tried to keep the panic from rising in her voice, but Artemis noticed. He tried to lighten the mood. "I guess we forgot to pack a Mulch Diggums this time around. I thought I'd forgotten something."

She forced a laugh at his sad attempt. "You must be getting senile in your old age. I didn't realise humans decayed quite this quickly." She felt slightly gloomy as she said this. It was true that Artemis had aged far too quickly. Human lives were far too short. In less than a decade he had grown to effectively the same age as her, and by another few decades he would be considered old. A few more and – but no. She couldn't think about that. Artemis Fowl could never die. He would find some way to outwit the passing of time. He already had once.

She glanced over at the young man, who was still a boy for her. Despite his strong body he looked frail to her, and she suddenly realised how little time he had left, even in the prime of his life. A sort of grief rose in her, and a bitter thought came to her head: _Koboi is welcome to that loss. That's not something I would want to have to live with. _

He smiled at her, noticing her worried look and mistaking it for her claustrophobia. "Relax Holly. We're still safe here."

"What's the plan then?"

"I suppose we have to stay here. Butler will come soon enough. I just hope Opal can be trusted to the mysterious 'spy' that seems to have rescued her for us." His tone was jovial, unconcerned.

"Aren't you worried?"

"Hugely. But logically no-one would kidnap her if they did not plan to make some sort of escape from danger, and likewise no-one would rescue her just to place her in another danger. It's not like I can do anything right now anyway."

She smiled despite herself. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

He smiled back, genuinely. "Of course not."

"I wish I had your arrogance."

"Now that's not very friendly. Why would you say that?"

"What do you call it then?"

He thought for a second. "Self-assurance?"

She laughed at him. "I would say that's the same thing."

Artemis chuckled, unused to being laughed at, though mature enough to appreciate that it was a friendly gesture. "It's all a question of degree." _Oh dear,_ he thought jokingly, a_m I flirting?_

The moment of laughter over, Holly was feeling nervous again. "I wish I had your talent for controlling your emotions."

Artemis frowned. "I wouldn't say that either. It's all about rationalising it. I could panic about Opal, but it wouldn't change the situation, and the only thing I could do was make things worse by acting irrationally." His expression softened, and he continued. "Conversely, rationally you know that, even if by some one in a million chance Foaly's technology failed, you would be safe, being only a few inches below the surface."

Holly rolled her eyes. "I wish I had your talent for rationalisation then." Her voice wavered slightly.

Artemis shifted himself over to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You have a phobia: an extreme and irrational fear of something. It's much harder to control something like that; you're doing great so far."

"Don't. Patronise. Me."

"I didn't mean -" Artemis began, then stiffened as Holly slipped under his outstretched arm and leaned in against his chest. Then he relaxed, and let his arm fall around her shoulder. He squeezed her slightly. He had forgotten how small she was. He felt her relax, the tension dissipating from her body.

"Thanks, Artemis."

"No problem."

**Hey. Been on holiday so that's why I haven't updated in quite a while. Good news is I wrote the end to this whilst I was away, so I guess you'll get that earlier! **

**This chapter is a bit... well I expect most people will see what's coming next. Oh and don't read after this, what I'm going to say might be a slight spoiler. OK?**

**Basically I want some feedback on where people think this story is going. I think from the reviews that most people aren't going to like the result I have planned. I'm not sure whether I should make it more conciliatory to what people actually want or just say sod it, you get whatever I want to write. OK so I worded that bad. I'm not gonna give anything else away, but some feedback as to what people see happening would be. As always R&R! **


	9. Chapter 9

"So..." Holly's voice broke through the silence uneasily.

"Yes?"

"Uh. Who do you think took her?"

Back to business then. "I have my suspicions. It must fall into one of two categories: either someone believes I won't be able to rescue her and wants to take her out of harm's way, or someone thinks I will rescue her and wants to take her somewhere more secure."

"So it could be a friend?"

"Hardly. Someone more friendly, perhaps. Someone wants something from me, fairly obviously, but who that someone is... I'm not sure."

"Is that it?"

"Well, that's all I know for certain. If they're trying to keep her from the mafiya it means that there's a good chance the hostage exchange becomes a viable option. The mafiya want revenge, but this person wants to do a trade." He sighed. "Of course it's still highly uncertain. There's also a risk that the trade isn't for something I can give. Not that I wouldn't give anything, but it is probably something of Opal's that they believe is mine."

Holly frowned. "Don't you work together?"

"Well... She keeps secrets from me."

"What a surprise," Holly said sarcastically, then felt immature. "Sorry, Artemis."

"It's alright. She's not entirely... changed from how she... was." Artemis felt hugely uncomfortable discussing the matter. "Well, she's competitive."

"Yeah, I can imagine." She tries to be friendly, otherwise he'll go on the defensive. It's hard for her to be friendly about Opal, but at least she can keep from picking a fight. "So, any idea what they want?"

"It could be almost anything. Depends, of course, on who has taken her. If it's military-" he froze. "Yes, that must be it! A spy from an intelligent agency."

"But then can't you guess what they want? If it's military then surely there can't be that many..."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you think? Oh, Opal might not be developing any weapons, but almost everything we've made could have huge potential for military application. It doesn't help that she tends to flit between projects more than da Vinci. But yes, it does narrow it down a bit."

"So? What's it most likely to be."

He tapped his nose. "Can't tell you. Or I can't tell Foaly anyway. You think I'd ever hear the last of it if I let loose any secrets?"

She smiled in mock innocence. "How do you know he's listening?" They grinned at each other, imagining the centaur in his tech-booth, bleary-eyed with sleep deprivation, listening to every word Artemis Fowl said in the vain hope that he would let something slip. It had never happened before, but there was always a first time.

"Here." Holly took her minuscule headphones out, stowing them inside her helmet, and switched the helmet off manually. Now Foaly couldn't hear or record any audio or visual and would presumably be stamping in frustration.

"Sorry, Holly, I'm genuinely not sure. It doesn't really matter though, does it?"

"Not really. Not to me anyway."

"Good."

"But," she said, pausing as she wondered how to phrase her next sentence, "there are some things I do want to ask you."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Look, Holly-"

"Why did you do it?" She felt him shift underneath her, intensely uneasy about this line of questioning. "Look, Artemis, I'm not accusing you or attacking you. I've accepted what you did a long time ago. But I've never understood it." _Was that true? _"So, please. Why did you do it? Why did you protect her?"

"Because she needed me." He answered, without a moment's thought.

"Really? Do you really mean that? Because the Opal I knew, that we all knew, didn't want anyone apart from herself. Didn't think about anyone but herself."

"Holly-"

"Be quiet! She showed again and again that she didn't care about anything but her own gain. Even if that meant throwing lives away. Hundreds and thousands and millions of lives. Without a moment's hesitation. And she _needed_ you?"

"She... changed."

Holly shook her head. "You changed her. If she's anything in her now that's decent or good, that's your fault."

Artemis frowned. Holly had earned the right to a lot, but this was his wife. "What do you think you'll achieve by insults? Am I supposed to respond to that?"

Holly flung herself off his body. "Well, where did it come from then, Artemis? If you didn't change her, then why did she change? Or has she changed at all?"

"Look, Holly!" Artemis drew a deep breath. He put a hand on her shoulder. "You can't force people to change Holly. It's arrogant and stupid to think you can change people, no matter how clever you are. I never planned to _make_ Opal do anything. And I couldn't have."

Holly was upset, but she understood what he was doing for her and was grateful for the respect he showed her. "So?"

"She was sick, Holly. Mad. Insane. I'm sure you won't disagree with that. She didn't need punishing, she needed help. Medicine, healing, counselling, whatever. Even we humans don't punish the mentally ill any more." He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts, considering his words carefully. "Opal changed because she wanted to, not because I made her. If she had wanted to stay ill she would have done. She was crying out for help. And I... felt like I had to help her. It was too much to ask me not to." He looked into Holly's eyes steadily, willing her to believe him, to understand. "You weren't there, and neither was anyone else. I couldn't let her go." His mind flashed back to that time, remembering the terrible feeling that he had felt when she had started to break apart.

Holly looked at the young man in front of her, his intelligent eyes burning with absolute honesty, and felt herself softening. How could she blame him for this? He had done something entirely out of charity almost; shouldn't she, of all people, be proud of him. Except she wasn't. She did blame him. How could she not: he had betrayed them all, especially her.

She shrugged his arm from her shoulder. "No. You had a choice, Artemis. You chose her side."

"Holly, I – I couldn't let her down. I just couldn't."

Holly took a deep breath, steeling herself. It was time to face up to it, to say what she really meant. If not now, then when? Human lives were so very short and fragile, after all. "Artemis, you chose her," she said, then swallowed, hastily blinking back a sneaky tear, "you chose her over me. Forget the people, forget your fairy friends or anyone else; you chose her over me."

Her voice was steady, and Artemis felt the truth in her accusation. He looked at her, unable to speak. There was nothing he could say, no excuse that he could make, and even if he could he wouldn't have. She deserved better from him. Her face was shining and her hair was slicked back, covered with sweat and dirt, and her eyes were haggard from tiredness. And she looked absolutely beautiful.

"Holly... I can't say anything because there's nothing to say. I did choose her. I took pity on her. She _was_ pitiful."

She was mildly surprised at the simplicity of his statement. "So it was just pity then?"

"I suppose, mostly anyway."

Holly bit her lip. Artemis wasn't saying anything more, but she still had questions. Should she ask them? It was probably now or never. "I'm sorry to phrase it this way, Artemis, but it seems to me that pity is hardly the emotion to build a relationship on."

"Yeah..."

"So?"

"Well... that came later."

*****

"Okay, mister, where the hell do you think you're taking me?"

"Be quiet."

"No! There aren't any guards around; you've done a pretty good job of escaping by the way. So now you can start talking."

"Be quiet, or I'll knock you out."

Opal froze, suddenly realising how stupid she had been in trusting this man. Without any reasoning or information she had accepted his offer of rescue, when it was entirely possible she could already have been rescued by Artemis already. Now she was in a situation that could potentially be worse. Fortunately she was clever enough to shut up when warned.

They seemed to have stopped in the middle of nowhere, a wide open space. Biting back the warning that they could be seen easily if they stayed in the open, Opal tried to work out what was going on. It didn't take long: suddenly she heard the roaring cacophony of a helicopter's blades beating the air, and the snow around them was thrown into a storm of ice shards. For the second time in the past few days, Opal was hurled unceremoniously into a 'copter and grasped by several burly Russians. Hardly something she wanted to make a habit of.

*****

"So, I guess that's it then. You love her now?"

"Yes."

"And... not me."

Artemis paused, thinking carefully. He realised how difficult it was for her, how much she must feel she needed to say this if she was being this straight about it. "Holly I - don't know what to say."

"Artemis... I _know_ how clever you are, and I know you must have seen it. I..." but she couldn't finish.

"I know, Holly. I really am sorry, believe me."

She ignored his apology and pressed on. "And I thought that you felt the same."

"Yes. Yes I did. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, Holly. I hated myself for treating you like that, and every time I looked at her, for years afterwards, I remembered you, what I had thrown away. And every time I felt it wasn't worth it, that _she_ wasn't worth it. But it was done, and there was nothing I could do."

She smiled, her eyes wet. "That means a lot to me, Artemis. Sometimes I thought you would forget about me, sometimes I even thought you didn't care at all."

"No, never. I thought about almost nothing else for years."

"Neither did I."

They sat in silence for a while, awkward and tense, though both felt strangely elated at the talk. Holly broke the silence hesitantly. "You know I... I still haven't."

"What?"

"Thought about anyone else. And don't think I haven't had offers."

"Eh..." Artemis found himself actually blushing slightly at this unabashed statement. "I'm - that is," he stammered, then frowned, "Holly, I don't want to think of you living like that."

"Well I am!" She suddenly exploded. "I know you've moved on, and I can't help that. We live longer than you and we tend to get attached for longer too! And I still love you!"

Finally she had said it. He looked at her face glaring at him in a mixture of affection and anger, her defiant eyes, _his _defiant eyes. She gazed back at him, unable to help the huge swell of emotion flooding her chest. She felt herself moving forward, and he found himself doing the same.

"Artemis, I'm sorry," she said. And then she leaned forward and kissed him.

**Yeah sorry for the delay here, I was on holiday (again). I guess this chapter needs a little explaining. I'm currently reworking the prequel to this, and the ending changes quite a lot. I've chosen to write this to fit in with the rewrite rather than the fic as it is, so if some of the character's statements seem a little incongruous just bear with me for the moment. All I'll say is that Opal and Artemis don't get together for at least a few years after he takes her in, and at first they're technically not an item. If you don't want to reread it when I've finished that's all you really need to know. **

**Anyway, mega-drama is happening in this chapter! I know a lot of people wanted this and were expecting it in the last chapter, so hopefully you'll be happy with this. I've deduced that most people don't like Opal, and though I said I might change it I've decided not to, so don't think that I have: this was always planned. As always, R&R, whether you liked or disliked it, I live for attention after all...**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey guys, sorry the update took so long. I spent a long time on some scenes in this chapter to get them right, so it took a while. Also I wanted to write more and publish a longer chapter but in the end I thought I'd just put this up as it's about the length of most of the other chapters. **

**Please R&R! **

* * *

Of course right about then there should have been a dramatic interruption. Some sort of explosion would have done the trick, or the Russians managing to somehow find their cubbyhole and taking them captive so that Butler could rescue them in some daring manoeuvre. Although as this was real life and that would have led to Artemis being shot and Holly being shot if she was lucky, it was probably a good thing that it didn't.

Instead Artemis sat there with Holly looking straight at him, almost daring him to throw her off or say something awkward. He didn't. Right now his brain was desperately trying not to think about what had just happened. The expression on Holly's face helped matters greatly. A curious mixture of defiance, nervousness and something resembling surprise lay in her eyes. He opened his mouth and closed it again, smiling faintly.

He leaned his head forward slightly and kissed her. Her lips moved slightly, yielding to his touch, and she pushed herself back against him. They both closed their eyes and for that one tiny moment forgot the world around them. Artemis's hand rose up as if of its own accord and gently alighted on her cheek, stroking back into her short, tousled hair. They stayed almost unmoving, keeping the moment in stasis. Then finally she pulled away.

"Artemis, I-"

"Don't, Holly." And she felt that he was right, somehow. Any excuses or discussion would ruin it. It had been a detached experience, something that wouldn't survive in the cruel practicality of the real world. She felt as if their little rabbit-hole was a separate place, where acts like this were possible. If they were wrenched from that space then it would dissipate like mist. Instead she rested her head on his chest, content to leave it at that. For now at least.

*****

Opal, on the other hand, was getting acquainted with Stockholm syndrome. Well not exactly, but she was much less worried than she probably should have been.

"Sorry about that. I had to get you to the 'copter quickly." Sergei had become incredibly charming after he had relaxed. He had a cute little smile as well, and his manly stubble was, well, manly.

"I think I can probably forgive you," she said, practically purring. One of the other men laughed roughly and said something quickly in Sergei's ear that Opal didn't catch. Since her magic had gone she only had a loose grasp of language at best.

"He says you are the most beautiful girl he has ever seen."

"Yes, I know. But tell him thank you for the compliment." She beamed at the man who had spoken who, to her immense surprise, blushed and looked down.

There was something about this group that made them much friendlier than her previous captors. Not only were they casual and chatty, they seemed confidently relaxed in the way that only true professionals are. And they were kitted out with some serious gear. Most likely a covert operations unit for the Russian military, or 'Black Ops' as Butler would call them. Serious business, and not exactly entirely subject to legality, but then again probably better than gangsters.

The helicopter began to rise, the rotors whipping up the snow around them. Then, just as they were leaving the ground, a Stinger missile hit the helicopter from below, smashing it onto its side.

*****

Eventually Butler found them. Smashing a giant fist into the small layer of earth over them, he collapsed the den, giving Artemis and Holly the fright of their lives. He grabbed Artemis by the collar and dragged him to his feet, leaving Holly to crawl out in a rather undignified manner.

"Thank Frond," gasped Holly. "I don't think I could have stood much more of that."

Artemis gave her an odd look which she chose to ignore. "Yes, well done, Butler..."

Holly looked around them, but the men who had been here before were gone. A few lay unconscious, or at least she hoped they were unconscious, and were spread around the landscape. "Good job, big man. I didn't think you had it in you."

Butler paused for a second but recovered almost perfectly. "Watch it, you. I'm not ready for retirement yet."

Artemis rubbed his temples. "All this banter is very 'macho', but could we please focus? We have no idea where Opal has gone, we have no method of finding her and we have no immediate means of transportation."

Holly scowled at him. "Cool it, Artemis." She picked up her helmet and put it back on. "Foaly, are you there?"

"Holly! I thought something had happened to you!"

"Well... something did."

"What?"

"I- never mind. Tell you later. Look, Butler has just found and rescued us but we have no idea where Koboi is. What can you tell us?"

"Oh, right, Opal. Well the only activity I've seen recently was a helicopter being shot down by a surface-to-air missile."

_Only? _thought Holly exasperatedly. "Where?"

"About half a klick south-east of your current position. Mafiya forces are converging on the area as we speak. I'm detecting about a dozen heat signatures next to the wreckage."

_About a dozen_, she thought. _Even if one of them is Opal they could probably hold out for quite a while in this weather if they're good enough. _"We need to start moving," she said.

"Roger that, Holly. You can explain the situation on the move."

*****

"Right, we need to stay hidden, and stay together. Which means, as Artemis cannot turn invisible, we shall have to move very slowly. Foaly, keep us informed on the situation at the crash site."

"Sure thing," said Foaly through the speaker on Holly's helmet. He then opened a private line to Holly. "Hey, Holly, something's not quite right."

"What is it, Foaly?"

"Well, Butler seems different somehow. Aside from the fact that he's here and apparently fully healthy, how the hell did he find you? The den is supposed to be entirely hidden from any radar or infrared scanners."

"I don't know, Foaly, maybe Opal made a scanner that can find it."

"Well, maybe but I don't think that's it. And how come he said that only Artemis couldn't go invisible? Does that mean he can?"

Holly felt uneasy for some reason. "Just leave it, Foaly."

But it was too late. The curious centaur ran a quick scan over Butler to find the hidden sensor and, because he used Holly's iris cam do to it, she saw the results of the scan too.

Butler's body was a complex matrix of fibre optics, circuitry and metal. Foaly hit the cancel button as soon as he could but it was too late for Holly. The iris camera displayed a computer generated image of Butler's body and its composite materials, and the numbers told the story. Only 19% of Butler's body was organic material. The rest was a mixture of electronics, tungsten carbide, ceramics, unknown titanium alloys and a mass of various other plastics, metal matrix composites and carbon compounds that were too numerous to comprehend.

"Oh my god."

"Foaly..."

Holly had stopped moving and the two men turned around.

"What's wrong, Holly?"

"Butler you..." Holly felt water well up in her eyes. Sheer shock caused the tears, the tingling sensation rising at the base of her nose. Butler's face was exactly as it had always been. The huge, gentle man looked concerned, but at the same time Holly could see, could actually _see_ the metal moving inside of him. She felt her throat clench up with emotion.

"Holly? We need to keep moving." Holly's gaze switched from Butler to Artemis, who had just spoken. All at once her shock focused into a white ball of rage. _How dare he?_

Butler had noticed her tears. "Holly?"

She staggered the few steps to him, touching his chest lightly. "What has she done to you, old friend?"

Artemis's face whitened. "Holly-" he began, then stopped immediately. The look she gave him was terrible.

"Holly, this is not the time," said Butler. "We need to get the job done first."

"But-"

"Please, leave it. For now."

Holly's mind was reeling. The only cogent thought running through her mind, that she kept thinking was: _This is her doing. She did this horrific... __**thing,**__ and she used one of my friends to do it. And Artemis let her._

*****

"Shit!" Sergei swore as a bullet hit the ground just in front of him and ducked down instinctively.

The mafiya soldiers had come in dribs and drabs but had sensibly kept their distance and they had now amassed a force of at least twenty men. Most had AK-47s or just pistols; their weapons were much less impressive than those of the black ops men, but it didn't really matter. They had switched their rifles to single-shot mode and were keeping their distance, reasonably safely secured by their loose formation and the snow that was beginning to fall. It wasn't as if the defenders could go anywhere, after all.

The black ops had quickly dug in; only a couple of them had been injured by the crash and now they were acting quickly and efficiently. Opal could see however that all they were doing was delaying the inevitable. Eventually the enemy would overwhelm them through weight of numbers. Bullets zinged through the snow around them, though most were hopelessly inaccurate. The men kept their heads down, occasionally popping up to burst off a few rounds into what, to Opal, looked like impenetrable whiteness. She herself had been shoved as far back as possible with two men standing over her to take any stray bullets.

Sergei kept a smile up for her sake. "Hey, you ok? Don't worry about this lot, we can handle them, no problem." The fevered activity behind him belied his words but she smiled back encouragingly.

There was a cheer from the Russians; they had found an 82mm mortar which had survived the crash and were now setting it up enthusiastically. Within seconds they had roughly aimed it and drop-fired a round that was immediately whisked away by the blizzard. There was a distant, muffled roar, but Opal had no idea whether it had hit or not, as they immediately prepared another round without celebration.

*****

"What's going on out there, Butler?"

"There are about ten heat signatures just next to the wreckage and about three times that many mafiya hit men surrounding them from all angles. But more are coming all the time."

"And Opal?"

"Yep, she's fine. I'm picking up her implant signal clearly; apart from the cold, all body signs are normal."

"Right." Artemis chewed his bottom lip, concentrating. "Do we have the communicator?"

"Of course."

"And how long do you think they can last?"

"They're good, Artemis, and well armed too. They're clearly trained and experienced at fighting in these conditions, but they can only delay the inevitable - they certainly won't last long enough for any backup to arrive."

"I see." Artemis had mostly worked this out for himself, but bouncing ideas off the experienced bodyguard was a good way of troubleshooting in a hurry. "In that case, I think it's time to negotiate."


	11. Chapter 11

**Ugh, sorry this took so long. I keep losing interest in this to write other stuff. I read Orson Scott Card's 'Speaker for the Dead' today and really wanted to do some fanfiction for that, but I managed to push that to one side for now.**

**Kinda boring chapter perhaps... I'm not sure about some bits of it, so please R&R critically. Hopefully I can finish this soon!**

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Opal shivered in the cold and tried to make herself as small a target as possible. She jumped as something exploded behind her, whipping snow over the dugout. Then she noticed her wrist was bleeping.

"Butler?"

"Ma'am."

"Where the hell are you? Get me out of here right now!"

"Roger that. Ah... that might be a little difficult."

"What? Where are you? What's going on?"

Artemis's voice came through the speaker. "Opal?"

At the sound of his voice Opal felt weak. The weight of her experience came down on her all at once. "Artemis..." She felt a tear freeze on her cheek.

"Are you ok?" he said, his voice full of worry.

"Yes."

"Good. Good! Look, we have a plan to get you out of there. Do you know who's kidnapped you?"

"No, but look, Artemis, they didn't kidnap me, don't hurt them." Opal heard a laugh in the background when she said this. "Who was that?"

Holly looked sheepish. The irony of Opal asking for someone not to be harmed had been too much.

Artemis hesitated before he answered. "It's Holly, but-"

"What?!"

"There isn't time for this, Opal! Just calm down and listen. Get whoever's in charge there to speak to me."

Grumbling, Opal beckoned Sergei over to her. "It's Artemis!" she shouted over the roaring winds, "he wants to talk to you!"

Immediately the man paid attention to her. "What? He's here?"

She thrust her wrist towards him, which he held gingerly, pressing it closely to his ear. "Hello?"

"Good evening. I believe you have something of mine."

The Russian jumped at the volume of the sound; Artemis had switched the tiny speaker to conference mode and the sound was much louder than anyone would have expected. Opal winced as he twisted her wrist painfully. "Fowl? Where are you?"

"First things first, friend. I know where you are, but why are you here? Who are you working for, and why did you take my wife?"

Sergei groaned inwardly. This was certainly the worst case scenario. "It was a rescue mission. We knew the mafiya would not keep their word and that if you went to St. Petersburg you would not be there in time to rescue her, so we thought we'd help you. We work for the government, it was a gesture of goodwill."

"Touching. Or at least it would be if you had offered the same help when my father had needed rescuing. Well, let us say that I take your word for it, for now at least. You seem to be in quite some trouble."

"How do you know that? Where are you?"

Artemis made a show of sighing wearily. "Look, clearly we are running out of time here, so could we please get to the point?"

"Fine. What do you want?"

"What do you want? That's what I want to know. I can get you out of this hole but I want to know why you took my wife. What does the Russian government want with me?"

He didn't reply immediately, glancing around at the situation. Two of his men had just been wounded and it was only getting worse. Throwing his orders to the wind, he answered. "Fine, but can we do this quickly? We don't have much time. Your wife is in as much danger as we are here."

"Fair point. I shall be with you shortly."

*****

"Well? What's going on?"

"Well, fairly simply, we're going to rescue them. We'll remove the mafiya forces and get Opal to safety."

"That simple huh?"

"Well actually, yes. You and Butler have a significant advantage against our opponents after all."

"I think I should warn you that my gun is almost useless in snow this heavy. The light refracts off the snowflakes, so unless I'm really close..."

"Don't worry about it, Commander. Butler will be more than capable."

Holly shot Artemis an accusing look. A look that said: _What have you done?_

The young man held her stare, steadily defying her with his gaze. "Holly, look, I will explain. Just not now."

Butler swung his arms uneasily. "Anything else I need to know, Artemis?"

"No, old friend. Just go out there and do your job."

The giant of man smiled at him encouragingly. "Don't worry Artemis. It'll all be fine if you just-"

"I know. Now, go!"

With that the huge manservant strode into the whirling snow. As his shadow faded from view, Holly could just make out his form change shape slightly, and felt slightly sick. "I can't believe what you've done, Artemis."

"Holly, I promise you there is a good reason. But I'll say two things right now. Firstly, this was between Opal and Butler, I didn't make anyone do anything. Secondly, it _was_ the right thing to do. Trust me."

"There's something you're not telling me, Artemis, I know it."

"Holly, I-"

"Don't you dare lie to me!"

He hesitated, only for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. He could see the look of betrayal in her eyes and looked away. "Okay. I won't."

She dropped her visor down and drew her weapon. "Fine. I'm going to go and save your wife. I assume that was the plan?"

He nodded, still not looking at her.

Holly observed him for a few seconds, emotions torn. She wanted to believe in him, she really did. After all this time it was terrible not to be able to trust him, but whatever Artemis Fowl had been to her through her life, entirely honest wasn't it. Experience taught her that whenever she thought he'd changed, or that he trusted her with the truth, he threw it back in her face.

"Artemis, look at me." He obediently turned to her. "I'm going to trust you, Artemis, for now. I just wish you would treat me the same way."

Before he could say anything she activated her wings, shielded, and flew away."

*****

Butler strode through the night, feeling more alive than he had for ages. He knew exactly what had been done to him but in all honesty he didn't care; he wanted to do his job, more than that, he wanted to feel young and strong again. He flexed his fists experimentally, feeling the latent power in his arms. He smiled, he couldn't help himself. He was, for all practical purposes, utterly invincible.

Something that Holly was perhaps unaware of, or at least had underestimated, was the desire a human being had for power, and not only that but the interest in developing that power. It was a mentality present in most males of the species; it was why there was a fascination in military equipment, in fast cars, in huge machines and structures, in computers and robots and super soldiers. It was the constant interest in _upgrading_ that seemed to attract male humans in particular like magpies. They couldn't help it. Of course Butler wouldn't say that he felt quite that strong an urge, there was no denying that it was a nice feeling.

He didn't bother to go invisible; if anything he wanted to draw the fire away from Opal and the soldiers. Instead he tensed what were once his huge chest, stomach and arm muscles, which caused plates of tungsten carbide to slide out from within his body. Had Holly been there she would have doubtless been horrified, but Butler made no reaction. He rotated his arms, testing the joints; utterly flawless. He extended the plating to cover his lower body, and tried a few kicks; no problem there either. Finally a flexible layer of silicon carbide and plastic encased his head in a brutal-looking mask. Now fully armoured, Butler's eyes scanned the horizon, advanced thermal imaging piercing the night. There. He began to run, gathering momentum like a juggernaut.

*****

Holly was having difficulty flying in the wind. She was constantly having to readjust her heading as she was blown off course. Visibility was getting worse by the second as well, though obviously her helmet was absolutely fine for what she needed to do. She liked being able to see with her own eyes.

She landed a few metres away from the group, downwind and the opposite direction to the way they were firing, of course. Opal was closest to her, but Holly couldn't just grab her. Especially as Opal was no longer a fairy and could not shield herself. Just another lumbering great human to look after. Holly frowned. Staying there was potentially dangerous, plus she was getting very cold. She wasn't supposed to snatch Opal until Butler had finished, but...

Holly buzzed quickly over to the little dugout, landing silently next to Opal. Entirely invisible, Holly sat there for a few seconds, watching her mortal enemy. It was a strange sensation. She was not a naturally vengeful person, but considering everything the pixie had done it was very hard to restrain herself. She _deserved_ to be punished.

_Control yourself, Holly. _In a way, she thought, Artemis did trust her. He knew she wouldn't do anything to Opal because he knew that she was better than that. He trusted her to do the right thing. What grinded was that he didn't trust her not to do something stupid. Then again, maybe he was right not to trust her on that count. Holly grinned to herself. Checking that no Russians were looking their way, Holly materialised in front of Opal.

Credit where it's due, Opal barely reacted, though her jaw clenched slightly. "Ah, Short. Shouldn't you be hiding?"

"Oh I don't think anyone is interested in what's going on behind them right now. Not when what's happening out there is so... impressive." It was true; at the moment the Russians were entirely occupied by the strange sounds of violence coming over the ridge. Holly frowned at some of the noises. Her helmet was picking up some very odd heat signatures.

Opal mistook her expression, and smirked fiendishly. "Don't worry your pretty little head, Short. Butler is more than capable of taking on such a _little _army."

Holly's head snapped back to look at the pixie, and she flipped her visor up to stare directly at her.

"What are you...?"

Holly's eyes were glowing with the _mesmer_. "Shh. Be quiet now, there's a dear." She felt greatly satisfied to see the deep brown eyes lose focus as Opal fell under her control. "Oh dear. You mud people are so very weak-minded aren't you?"

At this Opal began to struggle. "How dare y-"

Holly suddenly snapped. She began pushing the magic around Opal's head, as if she was physically striking her with it. The pixie's words were lost as her head began to loll under the excessive amount of power Holly was using.

"How dare _I?_ After everything you've done to me, how dare you even speak to me?" Her hatred for the little creature all came out at once. "You... bitch! How _dare_ you? You have to poison everything you touch, don't you? What, weren't you happy with Artemis? You had to get your little hands on Butler too. Everything you do is selfish and evil."

Struggling against the magic, Opal's eyes burned with anger swamped by magic. "You..." Her body shifted as she tried to twist out of Holly's control. The magic was having less of a controlling effect as Holly's violent manner was going against the gentle, reassuring nature the _mesmer_ was supposed to take. Rather than lulling Opal, it was as if Holly was trying to chain her down.

"What, don't like this? Feel powerless do you? How do you think I felt when you killed Julius? How do you think I felt when you tried to kill Artemis and Butler, when you made me run around after my friends for your sick games? You have taken everything from me. Have a taste of what it feels like for the people whose lives you mess up." The words didn't satisfy Holly. They felt meaningless and stupid even as she said them. She felt like she wanted to hurt Opal, to drive her fists into her fragile body and destroy her.

"I-I'm... sorry"

"What?"

"I'm... sorry."

Holly started back, horrified, as if she were only just aware of what she was doing. Opal was twisting and writhing under her, arching her back in pain. There were tears in her large eyes. She looked pathetic and weak. Holly released her suddenly and the pixie collapsed back into the snow, breathing heavily. Holly stared at her as she sat up slowly.

"I'm sorry, Holly. I really am." Her huge eyes found the elf's, and she held Holly's gaze pleadingly. "Please, stop it."

*****

Butler smashed aside two men as if they were made of cardboard, ignoring the bullets that rattled off his body. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded between his shoulder blades, causing him to stagger forward slightly, but he was otherwise unharmed, and turned in the direction the explosive had come from. Seeing this, the man who had fired and the five men next to him turned and ran. Butler ignored them. Scared was always better than dead.

There were hardly any men left now, and most were running away. He stood up from his slightly crouched position, allowing the armour to retract back inside of him. For the first time he felt slightly unnerved by his transformation. The way the soldiers had reacted to him had been... disturbing.

He pushed his emotions to one side, focusing himself on the job. Butler knew there was no point in dwelling on things you couldn't change. He trudged towards the dugout, looking as normal and unintimidating as it was possible for a man of his size to look. No sense in alarming anyone unnecessarily. He hailed the men before he got close, his voice amplified above the volume any human could naturally reach. In response a few bullets bounced off his torso. The shots stopped quickly and he heard a frantic argument break out. He frowned. This was the stage in the plan that could go wrong, depending on the actions of the government soldiers. Still, no reason to doubt Holly would handle everything competently...

*****

Holly drew her neutrino, selecting the distracted targets with her helmet computer, though at this range there was no way she could miss. In less than three seconds the ground was littered with unconscious men.

"Right, which one's the boss?"

Opal rubbed her cheek ruefully where Holly had slapped her just moments ago. "That one," she said, pointing to Sergei. "You didn't have to hit me that hard."

"Oh, shut up."

"Well I suppose I did say you could. Are we even now?"

Holly gave her a Look.

"Okay, okay. I'll shut up."

Holly didn't reply. The anger that had just burst forth was being suppressed, barely, but any provocation could make it explode again. Still it was oddly difficult to stay mad at Opal. There was something inherently comical about observing her reaction to hardship. Holly grinned, hoisting Opal onto her moonbelt by the waist, jigging her up and down in the process.

"Ugh. I feel sick already."

"I thought I said shut up!" She picked the Russian up and hooked him onto the other side of her belt. Her grin widened. "Now... it's time to fly!"


End file.
